Extreme Knitting Redhead: Two it is then

Friday, December 31, 2010

Two it is then

I finally decided on the Louisa Harding tunic/dress named Two as I already had the La Salute yarn in my collection. The other reason is it features hearts which I love.

A lot of my craftwork features heart motifs so we have crochet, knitted, wicker, pottery, fabric and embroidered hearts all over the place!

I also found some beautiful Rowan Kidsilk Night which is a deep blackcurrant shade with some shimmery glitter.

I love anything sparkly and I love mohair, although I know that isn't everyone's favourite yarn to knit with because it's not easy to frog.

The La Salute is a dusky mauve rather than the grey tone as it appears in the photo.

I just did a little swatch to check out the pattern etc and see if I want to make any changes. In the pattern the hearts don't sit directly on the stripe but I just wanted to see how the hearts worked out.

I think I shall put another line of the Kidsilk Night above the hearts to make it into a band and to get it some more texture - the stripe is knit in 2 rows of garter stitch which gives nice definition.

I shall also make the whole dress slightly shorter, turning it into a tunic as I don't think a mini dress would look too good on someone of my advanced years!

I'm just off out for my last run of 2010. It will be a 'tempo' run which means I start slowly and then gradually increase the pace when I've warmed up, then slow back down again. I shall have to do some hard work over the coming weeks as I'm feeling very lardy after the excesses of Christmas!

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Mum's Story

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings. Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. There came a point when I suddenly realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter and this was a terrible time for me. In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special care home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the last few months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was. It was heartbreaking. She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday.

Thank you for taking the time to read mum's story and I hope you'll dig deep and sponsor me using the link below to help find a way of beating this destructive disease.